Antarctica the Dream, Itex the Reality
by lys phillips
Summary: 1: Jeb shows up at the Martinez house. "They're going to take Ari, Val." Begging for shelter from Itex's retribution. Random oneshots about Jeb and Ari from the POV of whoever fits. Doesn't really have a set flow, just missing pieces from their stories.
1. Chapter 1

**Antarctica the Dream, Itex the Reality**

Valencia Martinez refused to look into his eyes. She knew that if her gaze flickered even once to his pain-stricken face, she would give in to whatever he asked. It had always been that way, ever since her days at the Lab. But now he was asking her to do something that she simply couldn't do.

"They're going to take him," Jeb Batchelder's voice was on the brink of hysterics. Avoiding his eyes won't help, Val thought to herself. His voice, which had always seemed just a bit hypnotic, was now luring her in. With each heartbreaking word she was getting closer to letting him come inside.

"They're going to take Ari. Val, please. He's only three years old," Jeb pleaded with her.

Still looking to the ground, Valencia gave him her answer once more. "I can't. I'm sorry,"

"He's in the car," Jeb tried again, "He's asleep. He has no idea what they want to do. It's to punish me, Val. They're doing it to punish me. So I had to drive him here, it was the only safe place that I knew. I told him on the drive over here that if he was a good boy and if he didn't say anything that he would get ice cream. Do you have any ice cream, Val? He likes chocolate."

Val couldn't believe this. He was rambling. Jeb Batchelder was falling apart. Usually able to handle any situation by putting on the calmest of faces, Jeb was now talking as though he were out of his mind. Actually that wouldn't be a far assessment in Valencia's book. Why did Jeb think that she would've let him in? She'd quit the Labs years ago and had lost all ties with Jeb in the process. And now here he was, on her doorstep, ages later wanting her to house him?

"I don't want to put Ella in any danger." Valencia managed to keep her voice even, which surprised her. Typically, Jeb held his composure in dire situations, and Valencia's sentences were the ones that lacked in sense and stability. When Valencia was afraid, her voice gave away any intention of hiding her fear. But not now, even though she was terrified.

A dormant dread that had always lived with her was awakened and triggered by Jeb's arrival. People who left Itex Labs were watched, she knew that, to make sure they didn't leak any secrets. Valencia had always been afraid that she would be punished for leaving, and that, as retribution, they would take Ella.

And now, Valencia realized, her deepest fear was happening to Jeb. Of all the things feeding her nightmares, Itex taking her kid was on top. And now this was happening to her ex-best friend.

No! She told herself. How are thoughts like those going to help your Resistance? No matter what he says to you, you cannot give in. No matter what.

"I gave up that life years ago, you know that. I'm trying to _forget_what I saw back there, Jeb, I don't want to be sucked back in because of this." Good, Valencia, she told herself, no matter how desperate he sounds you must protect Ella. And yourself.

But it was getting harder with each begging word. "Please," Jeb implored, "just for tonight. Just this one time. I'll get on-line tickets to Antarctica and be out before you know it."

Jeb's fingers curled around her chin and tilted her head back. Their eyes met. Valencia cursed in her mind. This was _exactly_ what she was trying to _avoid_. Because when Val met his eyes and saw the intense sorrow and deep trepidation lying beneath them, she knew she had no choice. Jeb was really worried for his son. Val could no longer hold his experiments against him, for he had set them free. The only thing she really had against her old friend was his crime of colliding her past life, something she desperately wanted to forget, and her present life.

"Okay," Valencia said, and Jeb's eyes lit up. "But just for tonight," she warned.

Jeb nodded. "I swear, just tonight. Antarctica."

Valencia shook her head, "Not a good idea. Paid any attention to the news lately? They're building a mall down there. Maybe..." Valencia would've kept talking, but she witnessed Jeb's furtive glances to his car, and allowed a breath of resignation. "Go get him," she said, "and we'll talk more inside."

Jeb nodded and retreated to his car. Valencia walked into her house, closed the door, and sighed leaning on the door in support.

_What have I done_? She groaned inwardly. _I've practically led the devil to my doorstep_. Not Jeb, Itex. How likely was it that they knew exactly where Jeb was at this moment? How likely was it that they were on their way, helicopters blazing through the skies, looking for their potential experiment? Jeb had led them right to this house, a place which she thought she could escape the horrors of her previous life. She'd started anew. She'd gone to school to become a veterinarian forgetting all about her degree in genetics. She'd gotten married, experienced the loss of a husband, but gained a beautiful little girl.

Almost as if her daughter were reading her mind, Valencia saw her 7 yr. old come down the stairs.

Perhaps Ella wasn't so little after all, but she was still old enough to run to her mother after she'd had a nightmare. Not that she would admit that she had a nightmare, but this was the routine. Ella would come out of her room and stand outside Valencia's door until Valencia came out and let Ella sleep with her. She'd been doing this less often, but tonight's nightmare had been a bad one.

"Go into the living room," Valencia ushered her daughter to the sitting room, "We've got company, I'll be there in a moment."

"They were bigger tonight," Ella said in a small voice. Valencia stopped. She had been about to open the door for Jeb—he would have his hands full with Ari—but when she heard the shaking in her daughter's voice she was deterred from her mission.

"The wolf-men?" Valencia asked.

Ella nodded. Valencia sighed, and tried to pass a ton of motherly warmth in the hug she gave Ella. Maybe it worked a little because most of the fright was gone from her voice. Now she told the story of her dream with all the amazement of a little kid, her voice shaking only slightly in the scarier parts. Valencia listened intently, nodding and gasping when appropriate to placate the seven-year-old expectations, until she heard three knocks on the door.

"Company?" Ella asked, tilting her head to peer behind her mother in shy curiosity.

Valencia nodded and went to open the door for Jeb. He carried a bundled, sleeping Ari in his arms. Having only seen a few pictures of the boy, Valencia was surprised at how beautiful he looked. Like a resting angel, his cheeks a little flushed from the cold.

Jeb mouthed another, 'Thank you,' and Val was reminded of the heft of what she was doing.

Val shot her daughter a look. Ella was gazing at the newcomers with increased interest. _Go upstairs_, she wanted to say. _They're dangerous_. Although she knew the chances of Jeb and Ari physically hurting her daughter were zero, the weight that they carried on their shoulders could pot ruin all semblance of peacefulness of her house. With Jeb's first step into her house, he'd marred any hope Valencia had still harbored of a safe return to normal life.

Of course she couldn't say these things. Her daughter wouldn't understand; the most dangerous things Ella had ever encountered had been in her dreams, safe enough so that she was able to retell them the next morning with a small smile. There was no story telling with Itex involved. It was _You talk, you die_. You had to bear this particular living nightmare alone.

"The guest bedroom's upstairs." Valencia said, still looking at Ella. Jeb carried the sleeping boy up the steps, carefully walking on his toes so that he didn't make a sound. With one last thankful look, he and Ari disappeared behind the bedroom door.

Valencia sighed—tonight was a night abundant in sighing—and turned back to Ella. "Now, what were you saying about their fangs?"

xXx...xXx

Valencia finally got Ella to return to bed, exhausted by the enthusiastic recap of her nightmare. When Val checked into the guest bedroom, she saw Ari and Jeb sprawled on the guest bed. Jeb held Ari tight, as if he wouldn't let Itex take him no matter what. She admired him for that, even if it was a fruitless attempt. She let Jeb sleep instead of waking him up to discuss his escape tactics. He'd had a long day; finding out that his only son was about to be genetically mutated had to exhaust him. Though she was allowing him some shut-eye, it irked her that she was the only one up, left alone with just her thoughts.

She remembered the day she left the Labs. It had been something she'd been trying to push down, far into the back reaches of her mind, but with the Jeb's return it had surfaced again.

Valencia was about to give birth to a child that would start a new series of experiments. She and Jeb had decided to embark on it themselves, and when the Director gave the okay, they had been ecstatic. At the time, presenting the project's proposal PowerPoint, neither Jeb nor Valencia expected anything to go wrong. But something did. The pregnancy was fine—well they assumed so; tests like these hadn't really been done before to compare hers to. No, _Valencia_ had been the eventual downfall of their experiment, the one she'd been so proud of upon thinking it up.

Suddenly she felt as though it wasn't worth it. Perhaps it was her motherly instincts kicking in, but suddenly she didn't want to give up her baby. Not for the Project, not for testing or experimenting on. It was as though having a baby _about_to be experimented on opened her eyes to the babies that had been experimented on. For the first time in her employment at Itex Labs, she saw the looks of pain, desperation and hopelessness on these kids' faces. She didn't like it, and in no way did she want that happening to her baby.

She confessed her fears to Jeb. Jeb dismissed her worries; he probably thought that it was just her whacked-out pregnant hormones talking. Jeb said that as soon as she'd gone through with the birth, she'd feel a lot better about things. Valencia doubted it and officially resigned a day later.

Itex wasn't happy about that. They had already injected the fluid that would make her child "special". They could not afford losing the revolutionary child, no matter what objections the mother had. Caring about other's thoughts and opinions had never been Itex's style anyway.

When it was finally time for Valencia to have the baby, she didn't go to the hospital that Itex had picked out for her with the specialized doctors waiting to stick needles into and jot down notes about her baby. She went to another one, an entire state over. They found her any way.

She didn't know it; she had no suspicions about the sudden change of doctors. Looking back, she was so stupidly naïve back then. Unaware, Valencia went through labor, and her baby was born. Her beautiful baby with beautiful wings. Val noticed with satisfaction that her delicate baby would probably grow up to look like her. Valencia glimpsed just once more at the child whose life she though she'd saved, before the drugs that Itex had slipped into her water activated.

When Valencia woke up, Itex had taken her baby.

She ran. She went to a deserted part of California, and settled into a small, remote town hidden by a mountain. There, she developed a sense of security, a waft of safety, and although Valencia could never fully shake off the idea of Big Brother Itex watching down on her, she figured that Itex would never bother to look for her again.

But Jeb had.

Valencia didn't know how she felt about this. On the one hand, Jeb had dismissed her feelings as if they were nothing, and then he took her baby away. On the other hand…

Valencia remembered the email she'd received. This email had explained the escape of six experiments each with wings. It had included descriptions, warnings and pictures. Valencia's eyes had looked over the email with burning curiosity—had Itex continued to Project? Had they succeeded? Valencia's gaze darted across the page, taking in each line quickly, but then she stopped abruptly when her eyes snagged a picture of one of the bird kids, and she'd felt a tugging sensation at the bottom of her stomach.

Why did she look so similar to Ella? Why did she have Val's eyes and the shape of her face? Could it be? Could that actually be her baby that she had lost so long ago?

It was. When Valencia found out that her baby had been set free, she could think of only one person at the Lab who would do it. Jeb Batchelder. Of course it never officially said he was the culprit, but it had been his project and she was his daughter.

Maybe she could forgive him. They had both made some of the very same mistakes. Valencia instantly felt sorry for being so rough on Jeb. She knew what kind of position he was in. She knew how it felt to have Itex rip from you your only child.

Valencia stopped tossing and turning, changing position in search of one that didn't leave her so uncomfortable. Allowing a peek into her past had actually lifted some weight from the heavy load anchoring her shoulders, and staring into the couch cushion, Val felt considerably safer. She even entertained the thought that maybe Itex _wouldn't_ come after them. Maybe they'd just let things alone. (That inane thought alone serves witness enough to how tired Valencia was). Thinking about her past had enacted exhaustion; finally her tumultuous mind could rest, and so could she.

Valencia didn't even bother going upstairs. She grabbed a jacket on the floor as a makeshift pillow, closed her already heavy eyelids, fell asleep...

... and woke to the sound of a helicopter in the night.

Instantly her eyes popped open and her heart thundered. She tried to make her heart stop beating so loudly. Surely they'd hear, and if they weren't already coming for this house, the resounding thuds exuding from her chest would lead them here._ But wait, it could be anyone_, Valencia thought to herself. _It didn't necessarily have to be _them_._

So why was the helicopter's sound coming closer? And why did she hear yelling that sounded strangely like the Director's voice?

Valencia jumped off of the couch and bounded up the stairs. Muttering all prayers she remembered from Children's Sunday School, she raced to her daughter's bedroom. Ella was stirring slightly. She hadn't fully awakened from the helicopter's roar, but it was only a matter of time, Valencia reasoned, as the chopper's noises were steadily getting louder.

_No,_ Valencia thought, _don't wake up. If they know you're here, they might punish you too. They might come after another one of my babies._

But Ella's eyes rebelled, and slowly opened. When she realized that the helicopter was not just a part of her dream, she rubbed her eyes, and opened them all the way. Slowly she sat up. Noticing her mom standing in the doorway, she asked, "Is that a helicopter? Are we going to be on the news?"

Valencia winced at her little girl's excitement and shook her head. After shutting the door and locking it, she sprinted to her daughter's bedside. Valencia wrapped both her and Ella securely into a blanket and gripped Ella tightly.

"W-what's going on?" Ella stammered, suddenly realizing that something was Very Wrong here.

Valencia stroked her daughter's hair and tried to offer words of encouragement, but at the same time get across the urgency of this situation. "It's okay Ells," Valencia whispered, "But please, don't say a word. Not until I say you can, okay?"

Ella nodded. Valencia could see by her daughter's many swallows that Ella was fighting back tears. But Ella was a fighter and she wouldn't cry.

The helicopter's sound was getting closer and closer to their house until it landed with a thud in their yard. Valencia continued to stroke Ella's hair, as a calming exercise for herself. She could hear the door being thrown open, the loud BANG it made when it crashed against the walls. High heels marched through the hallways and up the stairs. Valencia could feel Ella's heart rate increase with every step those heels took. Or was that her own? Or were her daughter's heart rate and Valencia's meshing together because they were both scared out of their wits?

There was no answer to this question, or at least Valencia didn't have one. She was too busy trying to make out what the voices were saying outside her door.

"Take them both alive," ordered a female voice. To say it was feminine or girly would be a blatant lie. The voice had the feel that everything it said was a command, and you'd better obey, Or Else.

Valencia prayed that she was talking about Jeb and Ari, and then felt guilty for praying such a thing. But no matter how much guilt it packed on, it was true. She was thinking of Ella's safety before theirs. She did at least hope that Jeb had heard the chopper and had made a run for it.

No such luck. Val heard his voice next. "Stay away from my son!" She was surprised that his voice could have as much command in it as the Director's, especially when he was the victim.

"Now Jeb, if you _really_ valued your son's life, you wouldn't have stolen six of our most important possessions." The Director chuckled her sick, cruel laugh.

"They weren't yours to 'possess'; they were just children. Same as my son, and I won't let you have him."

Jeb sounded forceful. He sounded as though he would win this fight. But a low rough sound brought Valencia back to reality, and she knew that he wasn't going to win. A growl escaped from somewhere in her house. The Director had brought back up. Erasers.

"Silly Jeb. It's not a matter of you 'letting' us. You were in the wrong. You _stole_ from us. So surely, it's all fair if we justify your crime with our punishment?"

"'FAIR?' " Jeb cried. "What is _fair_ about anything you do? What is fair about slaughtering children? What you're doing isn't 'fair', it's a bunch of bull—"

An Eraser's threatening growl muted Jeb and subdued his cries, but ignited Ella.

"It's the wolf-men!" Ella shrieked. "They're coming to get me! They're—"

Valencia clamped a hand over her daughter's mouth. She prayed that no one heard Ella's screams. What if they found them? They'd be dead, torn to shreds, just as she suspected Jeb was.

Only, Jeb wasn't dead. Valencia hadn't been expecting his voice to ring out, but it came, alerting all in the battlefield that he was still alive and kicking.

"NO! GIVE ME BACK MY SON! GIVE ME BACK MY SON, RIGHT NOW!"

Val's heart leaped for Jeb. Was this fair? No. As much as Valencia would've liked to run out there and yell right along with him, lecturing the Director about Itex's cruel and twisted logic, she knew it was safer for her and Ella if they would just stay under Ella's blanket and sit this one out.

It was hard. Ari began crying in the middle of it. A grown man's lament and a three year old's sobs enticed Valencia to begin weeping herself. She felt tears run down Ella's cheeks and onto her hand but she didn't dare lift her hand from Ella's mouth. She had to bite fiercely onto her own lip to keep from crying out. Somehow, she managed to stay under the blanket until it was all over and the Director retreated.

The chopper left with two extra passengers in tow. Nobody bothered to check any other room in the house. They'd gotten what they came for; she and Ella were safe.

No, strike that. Would they ever REALLY be safe, Valencia and her daughter? Probably not, but Val would take all the extra precautions to do so.

Val lifted the blanket from her and her daughter. Both bore sweat from the intensity of the past half-hour. Ella still cried, mostly from confusion. She didn't know what was going on.

"Mommy," Ella wept, "what just happened?"

Valencia knelt down and wrapped her daughter into her arms. She never would have let go if she could've helped it. But she couldn't and she knew that. No one could help anything with Itex pulling the strings. Instead of answering Ella's question, Valencia replied with one of her own. "Ella, how do you feel about moving to Arizona?"

**A/N: ****The night that Ari was taken because I can't believe that Jeb would willingly give Ari up. Jeb is twisted, sure, but not that twisted. Ari is actually my favorite character. I love his POVs in School's Out Forever. My favorite part of the book is when he's at Disney World and the little boy asks for his autograph because he thinks Wolverine is so cool. Oh jeez, I **_**always**_** want to cry. Because Ari finally feels important to someone. So I can't believe that his dad would do something so harmful to him. **


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

These weren't like normal doctors, Ari decided. Normal doctors told you that the needle wouldn't hurt a bit, and usually it didn't. These doctors ignored Ari as a person. There was no warning or murmurs of assurance, and when they _did_ plunge a needle into him, it hurt.

He looked to the doctors for one of them to acknowledge the fact that he was in pain. Sometimes his doctors would say that it WAS going to hurt, but then he'd give Ari a warm hand to hold. Ari didn't know what to do now without anyone to grab onto. The pain that used to be at just the injection point was now spreading across his entire arm. He wanted a hand to squeeze. This pain was so terrible that holding someone's hand wouldn't distract him so much as it would help him keep a brave face and not cry. The doctors would always say that if he was brave he would get a lollipop. These doctors had lollipops, right?

The pain was spreading past his arm and now to his shoulder, his chest. He started shaking uncontrollably. Whatever they had put into him, his body didn't like it. HE didn't like it. It hurt too much. And there was still no hand to hold.

His spastic movements accidentally knocked something down. Finally the doctors noticed what was happening to him, but only because a vat of precious chemicals had been knocked over. A few rushed over to Ari in an attempt to get him to calm down. But they were doing it all wrong. They yelled at him. They told him to stop shaking. But Ari couldn't help it! Couldn't they see that? Why were they being so mean, he was just a kid? Ari couldn't help shaking so hard, just like he couldn't help that he was now crying.

Apparently, crying was the last straw. One doctor threw up his hands and cried, exasperated, "Jeb, will you PLEASE control your son?"

Jeb? Daddy? Sure enough walking through the crowd of white-coated people came Ari's dad. He was so glad to see a familiar face that he almost smiled. Almost, but the pain had now traced itself to Ari's legs and was becoming too much for him. His dad, though, gave a small smile which reassured Ari. Jeb's hand went out and cupped Ari's small, three year old fingers.

"Shhh... it's okay, Ari," Jeb said. Ari was too young to understand the tone of his dad's voice. He couldn't hear the defeat or the loss of hope. All he could hear was his daddy's voice coming through and easing the pain. It was still horrible, but the feel of his dad's warm hands against Ari's was comforting.

Ari wasn't sure how long he shook; pain makes time act weird. But Jeb was there through it all, holding Ari's hand and softly stroking it with his thumb. Finally the pain began to subside. When it was all gone, and Ari's body had returned back to Ari's control, the white-coats started to buzz around the three year old again. Ari was still feeling the after-effects of the pain, his eyes were closed and his hand tightly clenched around his dad's.

Jeb leaned down so that he was close enough to whisper to Ari and not be overheard. "It's okay, Ari, I won't go anywhere."

This made Ari relax. The fact that his dad wouldn't desert him to a room full of doctors without lollipops was reassuring. But he still didn't let go of his dad's hand.

The whitecoats surrounded Ari and were busy with their Papermate pens and their clipboards. No one noticed when a woman in a sharp blue suit walked into the test-room. But when she cleared her throat to get attention, all heads snapped to hers.

Ari felt his dad stiffen, and followed suit. Whatever made his daddy scared was enough to scare him. Jeb's arm surrounded Ari's entire body, which was comforting, but Ari could still feel the fear in his dad's shaking arms.

"Dr. Batchelder," the woman said. Her voice held a hint of a smile. Ari opened his eyes to look, and when he saw the evil smile on that woman's face he shuddered. He shut his eyes again letting his daddy deal with her.

"Director." Jeb's voice was flat and monotonous. Ari had never heard his dad talk like that, and he didn't like it. But he didn't like that woman even more.

"It's cute, it really is, the fact that you still care about your son. But you forget, Dr. Batchelder, that you gave him to us. Now let him go."

Both Ari and Jeb reacted to the order at the same time. Father and son clutched each other tighter. Ari didn't want his father to let go and was glad when his dad pressed his son to his chest, and leaned over him as though to form a protective blockade between Ari and that evil woman.

When Jeb didn't say anything the Director grew angry. She began to walk forward, the clank of her high heels accentuated on the tiled floor. "I order you to let him go. You know what kind of power I have, Jeb? You should be _glad_ that I'm using your son; it's an _honor_. Or at least glad that we're not killing the both of you."

Ari didn't think his dad could get any tenser, but it happened.

"Please, think about what you're doing. He's just a child. _Please_." Desperation.

Ari dug his head deeper in his dad's chest. "_Please,"_ Jeb added for extra effect.

It didn't work. The Director ordered once more that Jeb let Ari go. And Jeb did.

Ari didn't want to let go. He clutched onto his dad's shirt. He didn't fully understand what was happening to him, but he wanted his dad next to him. He wanted that familiar warmth to surround him, to protect him from the white coated doctors who looked at him, not as a person, but hungrily. As if they wanted to stick more needles in him and take more notes. Which only made Ari more afraid. He clung onto his dad for dear life. The fact that he was so desperate for his dad to be there, made it all the more heart-wrenching when he realized his dad was going to leave him.

Jeb slowly pried Ari's hands off of his shirt. He held each of Ari's hands in his and squeezed them.  
"Be a good boy for the doctors. For me, Ari?" He tried for words of encouragement, but it didn't help Ari or cause him to release his grasp. He could hear the disgusted murmurs from the whitecoats around him, but that wouldn't make him let go.

A manicured hand appeared out of nowhere and slapped Ari's hands away. It was shock that made him let go. There stood the Director with a look of disapproval, as if Ari loving his father and not wanting to trade him for a group of unfamiliar people was wrong.

"Leave, Jeb. Now."

Jeb left.

Now Ari was alone. He stretched out his hand, because maybe someone would take to comforting the poor pre-schooler? But no one did. A whitecoat even bumped his arm away in walking to get another needle.

Ari felt sick. That chemical they injected wasn't rubbing him the right way. And they were going to put in another one? Ari began shaking his head furiously. He didn't like this. He didn't like not knowing what was going on. He didn't like being in a room where no one cared about him. He tried to tell the doctors what he wanted, but they wouldn't let him. He wanted his dad. He wanted someone to hold his hand again. He wanted someone to tell him that it wasn't going to hurt, or it was only going to hurt a bit, and if he was a brave little boy he'd get a lollipop. But as they injected yet another painful juice into his blood stream, Ari got the feeling that there was no lollipop, and there never would be.

**Author's Note: Someone told me I should write a chapter two and so I did. It's a bit short, but I woke up from a nap with a burst of inspiration. If you have an idea for another chapter, tell me.**

**-Lys Phillips**


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: Um... I dunno what to write, so I'll just stick with the basics. I own not Maximum Ride. If I did, Ari's life wouldn't suck so much. **

**Chapter Three**

It was weird sitting in this chair. His feet touched the floor. It wasn't as though it was one of those kid chairs, the one especially form fitted for toddlers. This was a grown-up chair, one for someone around Ari's dad's age. NOT for Ari. So why did his legs reach the floor? It was another one of those weird side effects, like his teeth growing. At first he was way stoked. It was like a permanent Halloween, those fangs. But then they started to hurt. And they tore into his gums. He fell asleep tasting his own blood, and that was not fun. Added to the weirdness was the fur that had sprouted all over his body. Yeah, it was like permanent Halloween, but Ari was desperate for a change in costume. Maybe something with a cape. Actually, he would settle for something that didn't hurt as much, or make him feel like a freak.

Ari missed swinging his legs back and forth, but he figured even if his legs were short enough this lady wouldn't approve of that. She didn't approve of a lot of things. Even though they had talked only once before, he knew that she was one of those old ladies who hated anything before their generation. So Ari stayed still, his hands folded in his lap and his feet flat on the ground, until the Director was ready to talk to him.

"Ari..." she purred. Maybe she was half cat? Ari had seen a lot of half and half people in this place. He was half and half himself. The Director sat in the chair next to Ari and placed one of her hands on his. The difference in size unnerved him. His hands had used to be soft and boyish. But now they dwarfed this lady's hands, and she had to be _ages_ older than he was.

"How old are you?" she asked.

Well there was a question. He felt three. He was pretty sure he was three. But did he _ look_ three? No. Whenever he looked in the mirror he saw someone much older than what he felt like. And looking at his teenaged-morphed body, but still feeling like a pre-schooler inside confused Ari. Ari didn't like to be confused, so now he dodged mirrors, picturing himself as what he looked like _before_ he came here. It was hard, as that image was slowly erasing itself and being replaced with what he was now. Whatever that _was_.

"Ari!" the Director snapped.

Ari immediately put his head up, but he tried not to look the lady in the eye. She was scaring him. Instead he rushed his answer out. Was that all she wanted to know? How old he was? Ari hoped so, because he was growing even more and more uncomfortable with each passing second. "I'm three." He hated talking too. Hearing the rough sounding voice coming out of his mouth was just so weird. He didn't sound like that; not the REAL him.

"You look very old for your age," the Director said. She cackled at her own joke. Okay, then, Ari thought, if this is permanent Halloween then this lady would definitely be a witch. She sounds like it with that throaty laugh, and she even looks like it with that evil smile! Ari smiled to himself, imagining the Director in a pointy hat and riding on the broomstick. Tee hee.

"Do you know why I have called you here today?" Ari shook his head truthfully. The Director let out a dramatic sigh. "Well, it's not good news. Do you still want to hear it?" Ari shrugged. He didn't see how anything she could say would affect him. Unless she said that whatever juice they'd pumped into him was radioactive and not stable and he was gonna blow up! But other than that he had no idea.

"When I ask you a question, you'd be good to answer it," the Director snapped. Then, seeing Ari's baffled expression, she tried to backtrack. "Ari, dear, I just don't want you to be heartbroken, although undoubtedly you will." The Director heaved a big sigh as she came to the climax of her act. Ari wished she'd just get the heck on with it. "Your father, Jeb Batchelder, has left us."

Ari's immediate reaction was to say, "Nuh-unh! I saw him yesterday!" But he knew that an outburst wasn't what this lady wanted. But he _had_ seen him yesterday. Taking his daily physical therapy walks with Ted from Lab A, he'd spotted his dad. He was so excited to see someone he actually _liked_ in this hospital-slash- evil, mad scientist lair. He broke free from Ted's leash, waving with zeal and calling out, "Dad! Dad!" It was weird, as Jeb kept on walking. Ari was sure that his dad had heard him, he was yelling loud enough. Maybe he didn't recognize Ari's voice? Ari tried a different route

"Daddy! It's _me_! It's _Ari!_." But even after that Jeb had kept walking. Ari watched as his father rounded the corner and disappear from sight. Ted linked Ari with his leash once again, and they continued walking as though nothing had happened. But something _had_ happened, and it itched at Ari for a while.

"Ari?" the Director wrinkled her nose in obvious impatience with Ari's slow reactions. She dropped the dear-old-lady act and returned to her natural instincts of a scientist. Even though she was still holding Ari's hand in hers she sounded as though she had a clipboard and was ready to take notes. "Ari, how do you feel about that? He _left_ the Labs. Which means, by default, he's left _you_."

Ari hadn't even made _that_ connection! But as soon as the director said it, Ari knew that it was true. How did he feel about that? he wondered. Not good, if the pain in his heart was any indication. It was as though he were injected by that poison juice again, except this time his body immediately rejected the thought of Jeb leaving.

It wasn't true. Jeb was his _dad_. Dads don't leave. Not without coming back. This realization made Ari stop breathing so hard. He hadn't even noticed how hard he'd bitten his lips, but now he retracted his sharpened teeth from his skin, noticing the new blood. Yeah, that's it. Dad wouldn't _leave_. Not Ari. Not his son. If he left now, it was just because he was coming back. Ari almost smiled at that, and he would've, except it hurt his bleeding lips. He managed a small grimace/smirk at the thought. He's got them all fooled, Ari thought. But one day he'll come back for me, in the middle of the night. And we'll run away again. And we won't get caught, and I'll get ice cream this time! It'll be soooo great, me and Dad on the run. Away from this place. Away from the Labs, away from Ted. Gosh I hate Ted. But when Dad comes back, I won't ever have to see Ted or his leash or the Shocker again. At the thought of all he'd be leaving behind he _did_ smile, despite the fact that it hurt.

The Director noticed this of course. She shook her head, letting go of Ari's hands. She used her hands to position Ari's head so that their eyes met. Then she said in the most controlled voice she could manage, "Ari, your father is not coming back."

Ari rejected this with all his might. He no longer cared about behaving mannerly for this lady. He hated this lady. How dare she say that his father wasn't coming back? He WAS! _He was_.

A growl escaped from Ari's mouth. It scared him as much as it scared the Director, but he didn't stop to think about this new sound. Instead, seeing that the Director was no terrified of him, he growled some more. His claws sank deeply into the cushion, ripping the fluff from out of them. He was mad, enraged. He began flailing around, but there was nothing around him to crash. He headed towards the Director's desk. She shrieked. He ignored it. She called out command after command, but he ignored those too. He needed to smash something. Ari didn't know where this intense _need_ to destroy something came from, but he gave into it. After wrecking everything he could on her desk, he was met with a new need.

He needed to escape.

The Director still shouted and screamed, in hysterics over the mess Ari'd left her desk. Ari still ignored her. He looked around, surprised to see that everything he saw was tinted in red, but not really dwelling over that fact. He searched in the red hue until he found a window. Windows led to the outside. His dad was on the outside. If he could just get out, then he'd find his dad and everything would go back to normal.

Without knowing it, Ari morphed wolf. All he was aware of was that he was on all fours and moving amazingly fast. Saliva dripped from his lips, along with blood. His claws were in full force now. He'd been morphing very slowly, ever since the Director had spilled the beans about his dad. His anger fueled the metamorphosis from half-wolf, half-boy to full on canine. Now that he was all wolf, nothing could stop him from getting what he wanted. What he wanted was his dad.

He shattered the window's glass with ease. His slender wolf body sailed into the air. Growling in satisfaction, Ari landed, albeit a little clumsily, on the ground. He sank his newly formed claws into the grass, thinking about these new feelings. He was still seeing in red, but he wouldn't rely on his sight for the search anyway. There was a whole new world to being a wolf. Now he could smell out his prey. He'd never tuned into his dad's smell before, but now he tried to remember what it was. If only he could remember...

_Agh!_

First a small jolt, then an unbearable amount of pain ricocheted through Ari's body. He let out his nastiest growl which, even for a pup, was fierce. But scaring someone to go away, wasn't going to cut it right now.

His eyes clamped shut as another shot of pain was sent through him. He remembered about his collar and started to paw it off. But he wasn't fully controlled of his strength yet, and kept digging into his skin. He stopped after he realized the pain he was causing himself was more than what the collar was doing to him. Besides, the collar wasn't coming off. Ari was trapped. He failed.

Ari whimpered and howled. It wasn't a battle howl, it was a howl of pain. He wondered if his dad could hear him crying out, or if he'd even recognize it as him. He continued to howl, until he didn't recognize it as howling anymore. No longer could the whitecoats hear a wolf's whimper, it was now a boy's sobs. Ari, his anger and rage failing him, had morphed back into a boy. As much a boy as he had been anyway. Now the whitecoats dared to approach him. Ted hooked his leash to Ari's collar, yanking the boy from his whithered state on the ground. Ari, drained of strength, followed as the whitecoats led him back into the Labs.

They took the normal route this time, in through the front door and down the halls. Through Ari's bloodshot eyes (his eyesight had returned to normal) he could see the Director up ahead. Instantly, he panicked. What would she do to him now that he'd destroyed her room? It wasn't his fault, although he didn't know how to argue that point. How could he make her understand that his emotions had just taken over?

Ari instinctively put his hands over his face, trying to hide himself from view. They reached the end of the hallway where the Director stood akimbo. Ted pushed Ari forward, showing only apathy for the boy.

Ari looked up at her, even though he didn't want to. The Director probably wouldn't kill him, but punishment was in order, right? Ari thought back to all he had destroyed, and remembered clawing his way through an expensive-looking laptop. He gulped, preparing for the worst.

"Jeb Batchelder is _not_ coming back," the Director said. She was a pro at keeping emotions out of her voice that she didn't want there, and so there was only a hint of fury. "You have to learn that, boy. Now there is no one watching out for you but _yourself_. And if you continue to do stupid, futile things then someone might _accidentally_ forget your food. And Mr. Warren's fingers might _accidentally _slip into pressing the shock button. And you might _accidentally_ get hurt. Shape up, Ari Batchelder. You've got no guardian, we are safe to do whatever we want with you. Don't try to escape, you won't get anywhere, not with that collar. If you try to chew the collar off, we'll tighten it. Do you think we're being mean?" The Director noticed the tears that now stained Ari's cheeks. Ari tried to rub them away, but more appeared after them. She grabbed Ari's hands away from his face, and brought his face close to hers. The Director was _smiling_. "It gets much worse from here on in. Grow up."

She dropped his hands and walked away. Ted yanked Ari in the direction of his cell.

_Grow up_? Ari asked himself. He was only three years old! He'd only been on this Earth for three years, and now he was being thrust into this world where Dads left you and grownups enjoy your pain? Ari walked into his cell. It was a while before he noticed the new addition. It was a mirror, all along the right side.

Even though the image displayed there was the most repulsive thing Ari had ever seen, he began walking towards it. He looked at the image that was _supposed to be him_. He traced it with his fingers, flinching at every patch of fur and wincing at his large fangs.

Ari didn't understand any of this. He was confused. Why did his dad have to leave? Why did he turn into a wolf when he heard that news? Did he even turn into a wolf? That wasn't possible! Only werewolves did that. Was Ari a werewolf now? And that lady, Ari shuddered at the thought of her. The witch, the Director. He realized then that he hated her. She'd given him the worst news of his three year life and _smiled_. She told him that he'd be in constant pain, and _smiled_. She wasn't human.

But this was his life now. His old life was slowly easing away. He couldn't hardly remember when his only worry was what he'd eat for breakfast the next morning. Now he was worried about if he'd turn into a wolf, or if he'd _get_ breakfast. Along with this new body. Ari looked at his wolfish features in the mirror, but they were so _different_ from his old self, that it just sent him backwards in his revelations.

Ari sighed, left the mirror, and sunk into his stiff bed.

He was so confused.

**As is custom: review please. Do you think I went too hard on Ari? Do you think I made the Director too harsh? I shall only know if you review. Thank you.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: A Visit**

"Hello, Valencia." Jeb Batchelder greeted her with a mirthless smile. "I've come to discuss a recent event. The landing at your residence of an avian-human hybrid." Jeb's eyes locked on Valencia. "You're her mother, you know."

Valencia Martinez could only stare.

Her brain was paralyzed from the sudden jerk into a reality in which long lost ex-best friends emerged from memories, so Valencia couldn't do anything except stammer.

Yes, she _knew_ that the angel limping into her doorway, hand clamped tightly around a bleeding wing wound, was her daughter. She had always known. What kind of mother would that make her if she hadn't immediately recognized the soft brown eyes staring her down and pleading for shelter?

Of course, the wings had been a tip-off as well. Six children in the world with wings. One her baby. One with some of her face.

And some of Jeb's face, too.

But staring at Max figure on that day, Valencia had only seen herself.

Only after Max had left did Valencia allow time to ponder about Jeb's role in this. Hadn't he escaped with the six survivors? Wasn't Max supposed to be safe with him? How had Jeb let her out of his sight long enough for someone to inflict Max with a bullet wound?

All these questions and more had surfaced in the days after Max's abrupt landing, but Valencia couldn't speak one of them now.

"J—Jeb."

And then the answer was obvious. And when Valencia figured it out, she hated herself for stammering. She couldn't stammer, not when Jeb was wearing a white coat with his name scrawled on a badge clearly from Itex Labs and a clipboard and a pen and a heaving Eraser next to him.

Valencia finally noticed the second visitor.

Her grip on the doorknob tightened, and her other hand clenched into a fist at her side. Not that she could do anything if the hunk of fur decided to attack. The sharpened fangs protruding from his mouth warned her that any wrong move could easily be corrected. He was big. He towered over Jeb. Not that Jeb looked small in comparison. Dr. Batchelder still held that look of hidden power that would not falter even next to the Director. But the Eraser—he could snap heads.

Val's head.

She swallowed, and hated herself for swallowing. Jeb was always at ease in these situations. Why did her knees have to shake and her hands tremble and her throat suddenly become so thick that she felt the need to gulp, the clichéd sign of fear?

The Eraser next to Jeb smiled, a rough, tackling grin. Valencia didn't know if he had heard her swallow and was reacting to that, or if the Eraser could smell the fear wafting off of Val.

Valencia tried to rein her gaze back under her control. The monster was just so _grotesque_ so much like a product of Mary Shelley's imagination that she couldn't stop staring at it, as much as it disgusted her.

Eventually, Valencia regained control of her eyes and returned them to Jeb.

"I've missed you, Valencia," Jeb managed to say in a completely cold, even tone that did nothing to imply any truth to his statement. "This is, however, a business call."

"Th-that's fine."

Damn. She stammered again.

Jeb clicked his pen for ink, and rolled back a paper on his clipboard. Looking over his preparations, he raised an eyebrow. "Aren't you going to invite me in?"

This was not Jeb.

Weird thing to think about with a seven foot monster as a death threat and a mad-scientist with unknown intentions at her door—but all Val could think of was how this man was not her best friend.

Ex-best friend. She kept forgetting that. The cold-hearted, zombie-like creature that stepped through her doorway could not be Jeb. The look of complete indifference as he passed into her home did not belong on the face of her once-friend, once-halfway-lover, once-confidant. It didn't belong on anyone's face, not anyone that Valencia wanted in her house anyway.

Valencia could safely conclude that this was not Jeb.

But one piece of sticky evidence swayed another side to argue.

_You're her mother, you know?_

Yeah, she knew.

And Jeb was her father.

"So…" His voice was a transparent façade of cheerfulness. He strolled over to her fireplace and lifted a picture, examining it with a glassy gaze that really didn't pick up anything. "Pretty," he murmured.

Valencia nodded, her gaze flickering from Jeb to the Eraser and back and forth again.

"Sit," she stated, not trusting herself to say much else.

And then it hit her.

_Crud_.

"You know where I _live_," Valencia hissed.

Her gaze flew to the upstairs, and then zeroed back on Jeb when she realized that Ella was in her Chinese class study-group. Thank God.

"How? Again? I never gave you this address; I never gave you the _last_ address! How do you always find me? How do you always—"

The dog barked. Valencia flinched.

Jeb raised a hand and the wolf-human dug his fingers into his skin. Blood emerged from the four newly-created holes in his arms. Again, a sickening pull drew Valencia's eyes to the scene and kept it there.

"Keep the blood off the carpet, please," Jeb asked placidly.

The hybrid wiped his arm clean. No blood stained the carpet. He did as he was told. He obeyed.

"I'm sorry about that, Valencia. He really needs to learn some self control." Jeb barked the last two words. The mutant growled lowly. "Now, back to the matter at hand—"

"Jeb. You found me. Do I get to know how?"

"Valencia." He chuckled. "_You never left."_

Itex knows all. Valencia recalled the day she tried to resign. After weeks of argument with Jeb, he had finally encouraged her to see the Director. If anything, what the Director had told her made her even more fearful of the Labs and more willing to take Fetus Max and leave. _Dear, Valencia. Must you continue to entertain this ridiculous notion that you will be free with simply a wave and a return of your lab coat? You can never leave, Val. Deluding yourself now will only cause more pain later._

Of course, Valencia had chosen the optimistic route: _Maybe they'll be too busy trying to destroy the world to care about me or my daughter._

Given today's events and those of four years ago, they hadn't been too busy.

"Now. About Max."

"I don't know where she went," Valencia moaned, now watching the door for signs of her daughter's early return. What time was it? Ella was supposed to come home at eight. What time was it? "She wouldn't tell me anything."

Jeb cracked a smile. A foggy-mirror image of the smile that would have graced his face a few years ago.

"That's Max. Always cautious. I taught her that."

The mutant growled again, a deep, guttural sound that caused Valencia to flinch noticeably.

Jeb's eyes flickered to the growling monster beside him. "Ari"—Valencia drew a sharp breath—"behave."

"No!" Valencia started. Ari—Ari?—growled and dug his nails into the furniture. Val almost wanted to reach out and trace the scars on Ari's face, to search his body, trying to find some semblance of the three-year-old boy who had arrived on her doorstep all those years before with the innocence of an angel. The three-year-old boy now a monster.

"What have you _done _to him?" Valencia shrieked against her better judgment. The—the Thing That _Was_ Ari was now convulsing, its fists tremulous

"He was an experiment. To understand the effects of a lupine-human hybrid if the formula was implanted later in life instead of in the amniotic fluid before birth,. For the question of a more effective army."

He said all of this as though the information was completely detached from him, not as though _his son _was the first of an army of experiments, not as though he had once journeyed miles and battled werewolves to save _his son_ from the life that Jeb now watched with a casual eye. Calmly, as though he hadn't risked everything in order to save six recombinants from this same fate.

His gaze flickered to Ari, checking to see if he was obeying, and Valencia watched Jeb. She knew that her observations were biased because she was specifically looking for something, anything at all, that would prove that Jeb still felt something for his son. The slightest warmth in his eyes, the minute twitch of a lip in a fatherly smile… but Valencia found nothing but apathy and a willingness to proceed with the interview.

This was not Jeb, Valencia decided.

And this was not Ari. "Oh, Ari…" Tears spilled from her eyes. She couldn't even pity the hideous thing properly because of how much it scared her.

"You might not feel as sorry for him, if you knew that his job here was to snap the neck of your daughter if you did not cooperate."

"I don't know anything. She revealed her wings to me, but nothing else. Whatever else you want from me, take it, but keep your seven year old son away from my twelve year old daughter." Valencia walked up to Jeb, filled with rage at the horrible changes made over the years and his threat at her daughter. She knocked his clipboard out of his hands, but before she could slap him one good like she wanted to, Ari came between them and pinned her by the shoulders to the wall.

He growled at her, his face caught between the decision to be a man or a monster. While his teeth were wolf-like, sharpened with the promise of pain, his eyes still held the same vulnerabilities of humanity.

Jeb bent to retrieve his clipboard from the floor. As soon as he looked up, Valencia caught his eye and held it.

With all the steel that she could acquire, she glared at this man who bore no resemblance to who he used to be because he used to be human. She told him, "You're his father, you know?"

Her last hope was to remind him of his paternal responsibility to take care of the life he'd helped bring into the world. But he took this bullet calmly, his gaze never wavering from Valencia's. With a raise of one eyebrow he asked, _Is that all?_ He waved Ari off of Valencia and she fell to the floor.

"It's no secret that you will be watched even more thoroughly from here on in. Your daughter will have to be observed as well to make sure that she will not leak any information about the girl with wings she saw. It's a courtesy, Valencia, that we haven't killed her for reassurance. You're welcome. I hope that when we meet again it will not be on such tense terms."

_I hope that when we meet again, I can remind you how to be human again. That I can remind you how to love your son again so that he may have the chance to become human instead of a warped monster like father like son._

More than anything, though, Valencia hoped that Itex would never knock on her door again, disturbing the normalcy she'd worked so hard to maintain. She hoped that when her little girl came home, all signs of tension would be removed from her face, she could smile convincingly and offer her daughter mac and cheese.

Although what would be the point except to keep Ella safe and ignorant? No point. No point in running anymore. She was officially in this war between Itex and Decency; she knew which side she was on, and she certainly wouldn't be of any use to her daughter if she kept running away, blind to reality. Instead of Valencia formulating another escape route, filled with the futile hope that Itex wouldn't find her, she would stay exactly where she was so that _Max_ could find her.

Ella will come home and through those innocent eyes all would appear the same. But Valencia Martinez would know exactly what had occurred, what realization had changed _everything_. She was no longer a coward. She was no longer a target. Itex couldn't chase her anymore because she wouldn't run. Emulating the brave grin of her winged daughter, Valencia would face the boogeyman of her dreams.

And while destroying Itex, she'd find a way to save Ari and Jeb.

**A/N: Another random oneshot. I'm pretty sure there's going to be fifth because I can't leave Jeb so harsh. Although his temperament is understandable because he's employed with Itex, undercover, using Itex's resources to keep tabs on the Flock, right? Or did I just imagine reading that in the books? Haven't read them in so long...**


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